Framingham's Ruiz has the trip of a lifetime

Monday

Aug 13, 2012 at 12:01 AMAug 13, 2012 at 1:04 PM

As Mark Ruiz flicks through the photos on his phone, a smile creeps across his face. The 17-year-old Ruiz recently returned from the Dominican Republic on a baseball trip sponsored by the Red Sox, and he’s got the souvenirs to prove it — including a pair of baseball pants that once belonged to Jacoby Ellsbury.

Dan Cagen/Daily News staff

As Mark Ruiz flicks through the photos on his phone, a smile creeps across his face.

The 17-year-old Ruiz recently returned from the Dominican Republic on a baseball trip sponsored by the Red Sox, and he’s got the souvenirs to prove it — including a pair of baseball pants that once belonged to Jacoby Ellsbury.

"A little tight, but I didn’t mind," Ruiz said of the pants.

The memories are a lot better than any baseball uniform, though.

Ruiz, a rising senior at Framingham High, spent a little over a week on the Caribbean island known for churning out baseball prospects. He spent afternoons working with coaches on his switch-hitting and getting a chance to compare himself to prospects who play baseball every day.

And in the morning he helped expand a house for a poor family in the village of El Mamón.

"It's like one of the best experiences that anyone could ask for," he said.

The program is called Lindos Sueños, Spanish for ‘beautiful dreams.’ The Red Sox send 10 American teenagers to the Dominican Republic every summer to have them work with 10 Dominican teens who are in the team’s baseball academy.

They went to El Mamón every morning and worked on a house that was smaller than Ruiz’s living room when they arrived. The group expanded it so it was more than twice its original size and gave it a paint job.

"The community service was a lot of fun because you'd see how great the kids are because they really don't know any better," Ruiz said. "Coming from their situation, from here in the U.S. to there where you see a lot of poverty, it's very eye-opening. You appreciate what you have. All the kids are happy and everything. At one point the kids were just holding the paint for me. And just that, they got enjoyment out of it. I think that's boring, but to them it was big to have contact with the Americans, I guess."

In one of Ruiz’s pictures, there’s a young Dominican boy with a dead bird in his hand.

"That’s his lunch," Ruiz said. "It’s really sad."

In the afternoons, it was strictly baseball. Ruiz, a third baseman, worked a lot on his hitting.

The prospects in the Red Sox academy are in the same age group as Ruiz, but spend a lot more time on baseball than teens do here.

"Their only way out is baseball to them," Ruiz said. "In their eyes, they're focusing on baseball. They live it, they do it all day every day, baseball. They know that in America it's different, you go to college and then hopefully (play) after that."

The Framingham teen got to measure himself against better competition.

"They're pretty good," he said. "To see that coming back here is I feel like down there they're probably 10 times better than they are here. I've seen probably one pitcher that could throw high 80s or low 90s, and people there are just throwing that with ease."

Ruiz is hoping to play in college, possibly at Stonehill. He hopes the trip will drum up more interest in him.

Either way, it’s made him into a mini-celebrity back home.

"I went to a mall the other day and saw some friends and they’re like, ‘Oh, look at you, all famous.’ " Ruiz says with a laugh. "And I’m just like, ‘The opportunities are coming and I’m taking them.’ "

(Dan Cagen can be reached at 508-626-3848 or dcagen@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanCagen.)